Buddying up at work

Encouraging employees to act as mentors or "buddies" to new recruits can help socialisation and speed up the settling-in process, our research shows.

Induction should be regarded as the first stage of retention. Far too many new employees leave their employer within a very short timescale - primarily because the new organisation has done too little, too late, to help them settle in.

A 2004 survey by Reed Consulting¹ found that one in 25 employees have walked out after starting a new job as a direct result of poor induction. Particular problems identified by the study include the impersonal nature of starter orientation and the isolation and sense of separation experienced by new recruits.

The importance of making a new starter feel welcome in their first few days or weeks should not be underestimated. It has been said that an organisation has 30 days in which to make a good impression on a new employee. Allocating a colleague to act as mentor, or "buddy", is one way of making induction much more personal.

Induction at Innocent Drinks, a maker of smoothies, starts before the new recruit steps through the door. "When someone is offered a job here, they receive the offer letter by courier together with a box of lovely smoothies," says Bronté Blomhøj, people person. "We have a full two-week induction programme where the new person meets lots of people from across the business as well as learning about operations."

The social side

Making inductees feel comfortable socially is closely linked to how quickly they develop in their role. As Stephen Taylor comments in his core resourcing text for the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD)², for some employees "being new in a department filled with old hands is daunting and can very easily hold back the speed with which they adjust and reach their full potential." More fundamentally, "a lack of social ease is likely to discourage new starters from asking questions or being honest about their training needs." One approach that can be successful, Taylor points out, is the identification of an established staff member to act as mentor, or "buddy", for each new employee.

At Kwik-Fit Financial Services, induction continues for up to six months after joining, depending on individual development needs³. As part of its overall strategy to improve staff retention, the company has introduced "guardian angels", a mentoring scheme whereby every new member of staff, or "cherub", is teamed up with an experienced colleague.

The guardian angel's role is to point out where everything is, answer any queries and, according to Keren Edwards, HR director, generally prevent the new employee from "feeling outside everything that is going on". This includes having lunch with the "cherub" on a regular basis. The aim is to help new starters adjust as quickly as possible to the organisation, both socially and culturally.

Buddy who?

In its factsheet on induction, the CIPD⁴ describes the inductee's mentor or buddy as "a colleague, not their immediate line manager or anyone from the personnel function, to help speed up the settling-in period".

In his text, Taylor advises: "This person should be approximately the same age and have similar status to the new starter, and should have a good working knowledge of the job the newcomer will be doing." Introductions should be made with the new employee before the start date and, ideally, the two should take meals together in the first days to "discuss some of the prevailing norms and unwritten rules that govern the way the department operates".

It is common practice among employers with buddying schemes to look to the new recruit's team members as potential buddies. This makes good sense as it can help nurture working relationships and build teamworking. And it means that the new employee has someone to turn to with immediate work queries or questions about the organisation. However, there is also an argument in favour of allocating a buddy from outside the individual's immediate department so that there is the opportunity to widen their experience of the business.

Innocent Drinks does not appoint just one person to act as buddy. For the first fortnight, the new starter has a daily lunch mate set up in their diary - a different person for every day of the week. "The lunch mate will take the new person out, show them where the nicest café and sandwich place is, and generally spend time together and get to know each other," Blomhøj says. "This means no more sitting in the corner of the lunch room eating your sandwich on your own on your first day."

Lunch mates are chosen randomly from across the company at Innocent: anyone can be one. And the organisation actively encourages people from outside the new employee's team to go for lunch. This means that inductees have the opportunity to get to know people from other areas.

Encouraging new employees to identify with the organisation, and helping them fit in socially, can have a significant impact on how they feel about their employer: it can even affect future performance. As Blomhøj points out: "We all remember having started jobs where the first day at lunch you suddenly had nobody to go out with and you felt all alone. We don't want to feel that again and we don't want anyone else to feel it either. Plus, we really like getting to know people who join our Innocent family."

Work and social

Buddies should not necessarily be viewed solely as performing a social duty, important though that is.

Work buddies in the London Borough of Lewisham's housing benefit service are integral both to ensuring that new recruits settle in socially and their becoming technically competent. "We tend to recruit new housing benefit advisers as a group and, after a period of training, they are allocated to teams," explains Claire Pierpoint, training manager. "They are immediately allocated someone who acts as a type of mentor by providing advice and answering day-to-day queries about the job and individual cases."

The borough's training team takes a holistic approach when deciding who is suitable to be appointed to act as buddy. While the buddies themselves must be fairly experienced, other factors are taken into account such as availability, willingness to take on the extra responsibility and which personalities would work well together. The trainers also make a conscious effort to give as many people as possible the opportunity to volunteer.

There is deliberately no set limit on how long someone acts as buddy for a new employee at Lewisham. "Typically, the input from the mentor is heavy to start off with but, as the new person's confidence and performance increases, so the support system naturally withers away," Pierpoint says. "It starts as a fairly formal process but becomes much less so as the weeks go by."

Performance monitoring helps the organisation to know whether someone is receiving adequate support. There is also a system of backup provision - for example, to ensure that the new employee has someone else to turn to if their buddy is not available.

Special interest

According to Acas⁵, some categories of new recruits may require special attention when they are being inducted. Its list includes school or college leavers, people returning to work after a break in employment or changing their work situation, and employees with disabilities. Having a friendly work colleague who can provide one-to-one advice on an ongoing basis could be an effective mechanism for providing this additional support.

So, just as the induction process itself may need to be adjusted to cater for individual development needs, so an employer may need to change its buddy scheme - or even develop a new one - to meet the needs of some particular groups. It could be that certain employees require a buddy to rely on for slightly longer, and the approach needs to be more formalised.

For example, the CIPD's factsheet on employing overseas workers⁶ advises that, where there is no informal network of expatriate staff to help the overseas employee feel welcome, the use of a co-worker as a buddy may be helpful. It recommends that, preferably, this co-worker "should have a similar domestic situation to the new employee and so be able to give practical advice on the day-to-day issues facing the entire family, not just the new employee."

The buddying scheme that Marks & Spencer runs as part of its community programme is considered pivotal to helping participants - who come from disadvantaged groups - adjust to their working environment (see box for case study). Royal Mail also has a range of different employment initiatives under way to recruit those socially excluded from work, such as the "hidden homeless", people with disabilities and ex-service personnel⁷. Because the organisation is recruiting some very vulnerable and fragile individuals, the buddying and mentoring that is provided as part of its ongoing volunteering programme is considered vital to its success.

According to Martin Blake, Royal Mail's head of social responsibility, the key advice for organisations considering a similar resourcing strategy is to provide adequate outreach help and continuing support. Under one pilot scheme with Mencap called "Work Right", for example, Mencap provides potential recruits with learning disabilities, who then participate alongside a buddy who helps them get used to a working routine.

Training and support

Because the emphasis is firmly on providing support to new staff, one aspect of buddying that is sometimes overlooked is the training and support that may be needed for the buddies themselves. If they are to perform their role effectively, buddies should be clear about what is expected of them - and, equally, what they a re not expected to provide by way of induction. Responsibility for providing information on some aspects of employment, such as contractual terms and rules and procedures, should sit firmly within the remit of HR and line management.

Depending on the kind of job that the new person has just started, it could also be appropriate to disseminate some helpful guidance material to buddies. For instance, cards or leaflets outlining the basic types of information, such as work processes and housekeeping tips, that should be imparted to the new recruit.

The other training perspective that is relevant to the buddy's role is the development opportunities that can be afforded from taking on this additional responsibility. For example, Martin Blake at Royal Mail is quick to point out that a key benefit of its buddying scheme is that the skills of existing staff are being developed as they coach and mentor new recruits. The opportunity for employees to broaden their skills level and develop new competencies has been an integral part of the M&S "Marks & Start" initiative from its conception.

The buddying scheme within Lewisham's housing benefit service is also viewed as a good development opportunity for those people who take on the role of buddy. "Giving someone the additional responsibility shows that the employee is a trusted member of the team, that they are respected by the management structure and can make a real difference to the work of the department," says Claire Pierpoint.

A helping hand

Mentors, or buddies, can be a key factor in the success or otherwise of the induction process. The person who takes on the role can act as a guide throughout induction and possibly beyond. If a relationship based on trust and the freedom to seek advice from the buddy is established, the new recruit is far more likely to acquire the informal information about the organisation that is needed in order feel integrated. The speed with which an inductee feels at home contributes to the overall impression they gain of their new employer and, ultimately, their future performance and loyalty.

The London Borough of Lewisham's housing benefit service experiences very low staff turnover. In Pierpoint's view, while this is the result of a range of positive factors, the comprehensive buddying scheme that has been developed without doubt plays an important role. As she says: "Knowing that there is a good support network in place, and that you won't be left to sink or swim, makes a real difference to how a new person feels when they join a team, as well as their future commitment."

This article was written by Rachel Suff, a freelance employment researcher and writer, rmsuff@dsl.pipex.com.